Vegan Children

Top 10 Things to do with Non-Vegan Halloween Candyby Bonnie Barker

If your neighborhood is like mine, your kids will bring home tons of candy after trick-or-treating this year. Here are some creative ideas for ridding your house of all the non-vegan treats.

10. If it is early enough in the evening, give it out to trick-or-treaters who come to your home.

9. Let your kids exchange it for vegan candy. Then use one of the other ideas to dispose of it.

8. Buy it from your kids for cash. Then use one of the other ideas to dispose of it.

7. Leave it for the Great Pumpkin. One family I know leaves excess and unwanted candy in a bag on the porch when they go to bed on Halloween night for the Great Pumpkin to take. He leaves a toy in its place. (The Great Pumpkin can then use one of the other ideas to dispose of the candy.)

6. Take it to your work or place of worship. Just abandon a big bowl or plate of the stuff on a counter. It will disappear before long.

5. Donate it to a shelter or soup kitchen. You may just make someone's day.

4. Save some for making Thanksgiving decorations. Hot glue colored candies inside a sugar ice cream cone or rolled up heavy paper for a festive cornucopia.

3. Save and use to decorate a holiday gingerbread house. Use hot glue and graham crackers to create the house on a sheet of sturdy cardboard. Then give kids glue or tape to decorate it with the leftover candy.

2. Use it for science experiments. See what temperature will melt milk chocolate or gummy bears. Find out how they react to vinegar or other materials. Use your imagination!

And the number one thing to do with non-vegan Halloween candy is…

1. Pitch it in the trash!

Bonnie is a stay-at-home-mom, who also consults part-time as an environmental engineer. She enjoys experimenting with new vegan recipes and organic gardening. She lives in scenic St. Clair, Michigan with daughters, Abigail and Grace, and husband, Earl.